Something as large and venerable as a national power grid comprises millions of long-lived components spanning generations of evolving technology. At every stage of its past and future life, newer and older technology work together in a state of perpetual recapitalization. It is not a realistic proposition to bring the entire system “up to date” all at once any more than to tear up all the nation’s roads and repave them all at once. As long as technology innovation keeps marching on, there is always going to be a mix of technologies incorporated into something of such a scale that it can only be recapitalized over decades.
Component service life a pace of recapitalization